The subject matter described herein relates generally to power generation systems and, more particularly, to systems and methods for use in monitoring the operation of the power generation systems.
At least some known power generation systems include a gas turbine engine system and a steam turbine system. Some known steam turbine systems include a multi-stage heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) that uses relatively high grade heat channeled from exhaust gases from a gas turbine engine. The HRSG generates progressively lower grade steam in each successive stage in the exhaust of a gas turbine engine, wherein the steam is channeled from the HRSG to a steam turbine. Known HRSGs are capable of generating relatively high pressure steam in a high pressure portion of the HRSG. After heat is removed from the gas in the high pressure stage, the gas is then channeled to an intermediate pressure stage to generate a lower pressure or intermediate pressure steam.
In at least some known steam turbine systems, steam valves regulate a flow of steam between the HRSG and the steam turbine. Overtime, during operation, the structural integrity of known steam valves may degrade and steam may leak through the control valve. As the amount of leakage increases, the control valve becomes less reliable in regulating the flow of steam from the HRSG to the steam turbine. Testing and inspection of at least some known steam valves require the power generation system be shutdown to enable the steam valves to be removed and manually inspected. However, shutting the power generation system down for manual inspection of valves may be time consuming, expensive, and/or increase the cost of operating the power generation system.